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HashKey Europe, a subsidiary of the HashKey Group of companies, has been awarded a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license in Ireland.

According to a January 7 announcement, the European subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange will be able to offer services such as fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto trading, custodial wallet services, and the transfer of virtual assets on behalf of clients.

“This is HashKey Group’s first VASP license fully compliant with the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive,” the exchange wrote.

The license was granted by the Central Bank of Ireland under the new regulatory framework introduced by the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

As a part of the new framework, exchanges looking to operate in Ireland must comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) requirements while also adhering to periodic assessments that review the licensee’s operational resilience.

Furthermore, exchanges are required to meet stricter reporting standards, including thorough monitoring of large and high-value transactions and ensuring complete transparency in their operations to align with the standards put in place by MiCA.

The new requirements came into force on December 30, and all related businesses operating within Irish borders were given three months to apply for VASP registration. 

Those already operating under the previous VASP framework, introduced in April 2021, are given a 12-month transitional period.

As such, they can continue operating until December 30, 2025, or until their application for a Crypto Asset Service Provider is approved or rejected—whichever comes first.

Firms failing to secure CASP authorization by the end of this period will be required to cease operations.

Besides Haskey, Irish authorities have also granted licenses to other prominent exchanges like Gemini and Coinbase.

For HashKey, Ireland is a key market, and acquiring this license was a “critical step toward strengthening its presence” across the globe. It currently holds licenses to operate in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Bermuda.

Other than its global expansion plans, Haskey has continued to develop its own ecosystem by launching its native token late last year.

On November 7, the exchange launched HSK, an ERC-20 token that it dubbed as a platform token that is used as the platform’s official native token and gas token for the HashKey Chain, which is the crypto exchange’s layer 2 public chain, launched in December 2024.

The token, which became available for trading on November 26, will also be used for all HashKey businesses, including the coverage of global licensed exchanges, investment, asset management, tokenization, infrastructure services, and more.

Further, in April, the exchange partnered with the TON Foundation to boost fiat accessibility off/on ramps within Telegram’s wallets and build on the TON network to create a user-friendly atmosphere for crypto traders and investors.

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